This chapter analyzes the relationship between indigenous and biomedical healing in South Africa. Although contemporary bio-political struggles over HIV/AIDS posit a ‘myth of incommensurability’ – an ...
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This chapter analyzes the relationship between indigenous and biomedical healing in South Africa. Although contemporary bio-political struggles over HIV/AIDS posit a ‘myth of incommensurability’ – an ideology that indigenous (read ‘traditional’) and biomedical (read ‘modern’) forms of healing are irreconcilably incompatible – people living with HIV/AIDS have embodied culturally hybrid identities by amalgamating different African cultures with cultural ideologies derived from international, national and local influences. This cultural hybridity is made possible by the historical conjuncture of events which marked the transition from apartheid to post-apartheid, and it allows the subjects of post-apartheid to circumnavigate the material strictures erected by both neoliberal economic restructuring and the pandemic itself. This chapter engages in a postcolonial re-reading of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of field and habitus.Less

Hybridity

Claire Laurier Decoteau

Published in print: 2013-10-04

This chapter analyzes the relationship between indigenous and biomedical healing in South Africa. Although contemporary bio-political struggles over HIV/AIDS posit a ‘myth of incommensurability’ – an ideology that indigenous (read ‘traditional’) and biomedical (read ‘modern’) forms of healing are irreconcilably incompatible – people living with HIV/AIDS have embodied culturally hybrid identities by amalgamating different African cultures with cultural ideologies derived from international, national and local influences. This cultural hybridity is made possible by the historical conjuncture of events which marked the transition from apartheid to post-apartheid, and it allows the subjects of post-apartheid to circumnavigate the material strictures erected by both neoliberal economic restructuring and the pandemic itself. This chapter engages in a postcolonial re-reading of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of field and habitus.

This chapter deconstructs former President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘AIDS denialism,’ and argues it can be understood as both a means of resolving the postcolonial paradox, and as a new construction of ...
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This chapter deconstructs former President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘AIDS denialism,’ and argues it can be understood as both a means of resolving the postcolonial paradox, and as a new construction of postcoloniality – one which defies African dependency on Western finance and culture and promotes a form of African renaissance. In the end, the chapter contends that Mbeki’s denialism amounted to a form of ‘necropolitics’ – the political decision to let a portion of the population die in the perceived interest of the nation. The chapter ends with a consideration of the effects of political abandonment on the subjectivities of those forced to haunt the margins of the postcolony.Less

A State in Denial

Claire Laurier Decoteau

Published in print: 2013-10-04

This chapter deconstructs former President Thabo Mbeki’s ‘AIDS denialism,’ and argues it can be understood as both a means of resolving the postcolonial paradox, and as a new construction of postcoloniality – one which defies African dependency on Western finance and culture and promotes a form of African renaissance. In the end, the chapter contends that Mbeki’s denialism amounted to a form of ‘necropolitics’ – the political decision to let a portion of the population die in the perceived interest of the nation. The chapter ends with a consideration of the effects of political abandonment on the subjectivities of those forced to haunt the margins of the postcolony.

This chapter describes the ethnographic setting for the book as a whole by painting a picture of everyday life in South Africa’s informal settlements. It introduces the reader to each of the primary ...
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This chapter describes the ethnographic setting for the book as a whole by painting a picture of everyday life in South Africa’s informal settlements. It introduces the reader to each of the primary ethnographic sites, as well as the central characters in the narrative. It also provides background on peoples’ ontological orientations and vulnerabilities. The chapter illustrates the profound health inequality that marks the landscape of post-apartheid South Africa and details how people cope with environmental suffering, the privatization of social services (including the introduction of pre-paid electricity and water meters), and chronic unemployment. More than anything, this chapter details the realities of contending with the mutual pandemics of poverty and AIDS.Less

The Struggle for Life in South Africa's Slums

Claire Laurier Decoteau

Published in print: 2013-10-04

This chapter describes the ethnographic setting for the book as a whole by painting a picture of everyday life in South Africa’s informal settlements. It introduces the reader to each of the primary ethnographic sites, as well as the central characters in the narrative. It also provides background on peoples’ ontological orientations and vulnerabilities. The chapter illustrates the profound health inequality that marks the landscape of post-apartheid South Africa and details how people cope with environmental suffering, the privatization of social services (including the introduction of pre-paid electricity and water meters), and chronic unemployment. More than anything, this chapter details the realities of contending with the mutual pandemics of poverty and AIDS.

This book argues that HIV/AIDS policy has been a venue through which the South African government has attempted to balance the contradictory demands of postcolonial nation-building: forced to satisfy ...
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This book argues that HIV/AIDS policy has been a venue through which the South African government has attempted to balance the contradictory demands of postcolonial nation-building: forced to satisfy the demands of neoliberal global capital and meet the needs of its poorest populations. It suggests that one of the primary ways in which this ‘postcolonial paradox’ is managed is through the re-signification of the tropes of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ – both within the public sphere and in the discourses and ideologies of people living with HIV/AIDS. The book traces the politics of AIDS in South Africa from 1994 through 2010, analyzing: the political economy of the post-apartheid health system, the symbolic struggle between ‘AIDS denialists’ and treatment activists over the signification of HIV/AIDS, and the ways in which communities profoundly affected by the epidemic incorporate culturally hybrid subjectivities, informed by both indigenous and biomedical healing paradigms. As such, it draws connections between the macro and micro levels – insisting therefore, not only on the reciprocal nature of causality, but also on the often complex and contradictory relationship between global processes, national policies and local practices. This bio-political history is positioned within the squatter camp, considering HIV/AIDS politics from the perspective of those in whose name these battles are fought but who have been rendered voiceless in its telling. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research conducted in informal settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the book details what it is like to live with and die of AIDS in South Africa’s urban slums.Less

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals : The Bio-Politics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Claire Laurier Decoteau

Published in print: 2013-10-04

This book argues that HIV/AIDS policy has been a venue through which the South African government has attempted to balance the contradictory demands of postcolonial nation-building: forced to satisfy the demands of neoliberal global capital and meet the needs of its poorest populations. It suggests that one of the primary ways in which this ‘postcolonial paradox’ is managed is through the re-signification of the tropes of ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’ – both within the public sphere and in the discourses and ideologies of people living with HIV/AIDS. The book traces the politics of AIDS in South Africa from 1994 through 2010, analyzing: the political economy of the post-apartheid health system, the symbolic struggle between ‘AIDS denialists’ and treatment activists over the signification of HIV/AIDS, and the ways in which communities profoundly affected by the epidemic incorporate culturally hybrid subjectivities, informed by both indigenous and biomedical healing paradigms. As such, it draws connections between the macro and micro levels – insisting therefore, not only on the reciprocal nature of causality, but also on the often complex and contradictory relationship between global processes, national policies and local practices. This bio-political history is positioned within the squatter camp, considering HIV/AIDS politics from the perspective of those in whose name these battles are fought but who have been rendered voiceless in its telling. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research conducted in informal settlements on the outskirts of Johannesburg, the book details what it is like to live with and die of AIDS in South Africa’s urban slums.

This chapter shows how South Africa has tried to domesticate religion in national heritage sites such as the Freedom Park, a presidential legacy project of Thabo Mbeki. The unleashing of indigenous ...
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This chapter shows how South Africa has tried to domesticate religion in national heritage sites such as the Freedom Park, a presidential legacy project of Thabo Mbeki. The unleashing of indigenous African religion in this place involved constructing a central shrine to draw the visits of all South Africans, and sending out emissaries from the park to perform traditional rites: the wild religious resources of indigenous healing, cleansing, reverence for ancestors, and community formation. In addition, the place creates an extraordinary historical depth by invoking both fossil records and DNA evidence to embed the origin of South Africa in primordial time.Less

Heritage

David Chidester

Published in print: 2012-04-23

This chapter shows how South Africa has tried to domesticate religion in national heritage sites such as the Freedom Park, a presidential legacy project of Thabo Mbeki. The unleashing of indigenous African religion in this place involved constructing a central shrine to draw the visits of all South Africans, and sending out emissaries from the park to perform traditional rites: the wild religious resources of indigenous healing, cleansing, reverence for ancestors, and community formation. In addition, the place creates an extraordinary historical depth by invoking both fossil records and DNA evidence to embed the origin of South Africa in primordial time.